12 July 2005

Amerie's Vibe

One of the many un-highlights of last month's BET Awards was the faux-ghetto routine perpetrated by Will Smith and wife Jada Pinkett Smith. "Y'all, stop looking at Beyoncé's booty," Will clowned to the audience. Jada: "We're going to limit shout-outs. Only one Shanequa or Raheim per posse." That wanna-be g-fab posturing isn't limited to Will and Jada; too many middle- and upper-class African-Americans—especially celebrities and those within the public eye—feel the necessity to "keep it real" by delivering stereotypes. (Oprah's eye- and head-rolling, for instance.) Unfortunately, hip hop media often leads the pack by catering to the baby-mama-drama fascination.

So you can imagine our disappointment after reading Miss Congeniality, the cover story of the August Vibe. It's unfortunate that many within the hip hop community have taken singer Amerie Rogers to task for being a multi-dimensional woman... a bi-racial, multi-lingual, college graduate from a stable two-parent home, who chooses not to act ghetto for record sales. But expect no less here, as promised in a tease that is edited for punctuation:

The misplaced commas set the tone for the three plus page investigation by "celebrity journalist" Serena Kim. Too bad; Amerie graduated from Georgetown with an English degree and could have copy-edited the fragmented sentences, run-ons and trite descriptions that we're subjected to. (Hint: The photos are fabulous!) It's quite revealing that a young R&B singer's prestigious college education never made the final edit, despite well-publicized data that reveal 40 percent or less of African-American college students graduate. (Well, Amerie is only half-black ... maybe this was half-relevant?) What does make copy is a half-hearted rationalization to expose the drama that is lacking in Amerie's public persona:

This frustration comes largely from the pressure on celebrity journalists to dig deep into their subject's lives, find the scandal, expose the flaw. Artists are just like you and me, right! But are they? With their drug addictions, their pedophilia scandals, and their domestic pistol-whipping, celebrities aren't like us all.

Ahh, the pressure of "celebrity journalists." Always looking for the next fragmented sentence or cliché. Certainly there is no pressure to be imaginative here; like most other Vibe interviews, this one begins in a hotel room or restaurant. But with a twist ...

Usually, print "celebrity journalists"—and we love this term, because our network news background probably qualifies as some type of journalism—begin their vapid stories with the obligatory "what the model/actor/star/celeb" is eating/drinking. But Amerie "doesn't drink, smoke, or curse, never gain weight, and prays before every meal." So instead, the writer entertains us with her drinking stories. What happens when you pour a few mixed drinks, one celebrity journalist and Amerie in the same room?

"Your eyes are red, and you look like you're about to burst out laughing." "No, I'm drunk," you say between nervous giggles, sipping on your second rum and coke. "Ohh. Is that what happens?" Amerie says, her eyes quizzical.

The fun doesn't stop with a few drinks.

"That's nothing, " you say, remembering the time when you interviewed a a DJ while on 'shrooms.

Why waste column inches on something as innocuous as an r&b star's graduation from a prestigious university ... when there are drinking and drugging anecdotes to be disclosed?

There's much more lacking to this piece than the abridged biography; there's no sense of balance. For instance, there are many shades to being black or urban. A magazine such as Vibe—rampant with layouts and advertisements that feature mixed, blatino and Latin models— should recognize the diversity within our community. Instead—like many others within hip hop's faux intelligentsia—it parrots the Will & Jada "let's-live-in-Beverly-Hills-and-pretend-we're-from-Compton" line. In Amerie's case, driving perfectionism—being a "control freak", probably no different than that of Jay-Z, Mariah, Denzel, Serena Kim, myself or any other accomplished, creative type—is relegated to the pages of Martha Stewart's Living:

She believes that every obstacle can be overcome with sheer will, work ethic, and iron-clad discipline. Every obstacle, that is, except the most difficult of all: expressing realness, emotion, or as they say, soul.

No soul? Can this the same Vibe whose mantra for many years has been to present as many light-skinned, Puerto Rican or Dominican mamis as possible? Not many dark and lovelies between them pages, yo. So who is re-defining soul?

There's a personal connection here. We've also been accused of not being "black enough"; also the product of a military family; also attended predominately white universities—the U of Chicago and MIT. Being black is more than baggy clothes, hand gestures and ghetto attitudes. There's so much more to the black experience than we often choose to admit. Amerie reminds us of the kids that we grew up with in Hyde Park; not welcomed by this crowd and shunned by another.

Don't read this article to learn anything about Amerie's black-Korean background, minimized to one paragraph on the third pages. Ditto for any revelations about her songwriting, her take on current trends in r&b, influences, future projects, or, childhood experiences growing up everywhere from Alaska to Germany. Not much of that is detailed. Over almost four pages, we learn very little that we do not already know about Amerie, besides fun factoids—such as the video for Touch required "27 Domino's pizzas to feed the crew and 360 bottles of water to keep everyone hydrated." What's most revealing about Serena Kim's keyboard terrorism "writing" is her willingness to manufacture drama. Let's read her description of Lenny Nicholson, Amerie's manager and probable boyfriend.

"I'm never going to be the first person in the room to back down in an argument," Nicholson says with a slight lisp as he steers Amerie's Range Rover around the streets of Chelsea and SoHo while waiting for her to finish rehearsing. [sic] "I can never see myself in a submissive position to anyone. That's why so many people feel like I'm pigheaded or aggressive."

The man is talking in "a slight lisp" ... while cruising the streets of Chelsea ... in Amerie's double R. Let's leave that description to your imagination.

If for no other reason, the article is a great chuckle or two between Michalangelo Di Battista's stunning photo spread. The singer looks absolutely breathtaking in four, full-page pictorials. The lighting and styling in the above pic in the violet dress is remarkable; the Ennio Capasa dress and gold snakeskin come-fuck-me-pumps are off the chain. Amerie looks more 40s sex siren than a 21st century "Disney version of an R&B diva." But hey, our day job is in television; what do we know?

Comments

OOH ROD...WORK! :)

i think you hit the nail on the head...

as much as i love amerie on the cover of VIBE (the violet Ennio Capasa dress with the gold snakeskin fuck me pumps are classic--right on part with red alberta feretti number Thandie Newton model in W magazine a few years..:) the other outfits were classic), I too was bothered by the LACK of decent journalism by Serena Kim.

What could have been 4 pages on a potentially role model-esque Afro-Korean, college educated woman striving to succeed in an industry which shuns multi-dimensional images of women, etc. was basically another attempt to "ghettoize" someone who isnt ghetto...

I just find it interesting that Kim and various other folk you and i both know who aren't feeling Amerie b/c there isn't any "drama" in her life, i.e. she's not interesting.

Is it me or isn't the fact that she's a Georgetown grad, with a clearly interesing life (military brat, afro korean heritage--which could have been an article in itself, etc.), clear work ethic, et. al enough?

Or, should Amerie just progress to the scantily clad, "r&b diva as prop to popular rapper of the moment"--where the current crop of young r&b singers (Ashanti, Teirra Marie (sp?), Tyra, etc.) are at right now?

But, I love this article Rod..you do bring up some interesting points..and yes, Kim could have even commented on how Amerie is viewed in the industry (clearly not black enough/not white enough...)

You are right about the faux-ghetto mess. But on the grammar issue, the commas are not misplaced. Traditionally, commas were placed before the "and" for three or more listed items in a series. For instance, commas separates these items thusly: John had pizza, green beans, and Pepsi.

More recently, it has been acceptable to drop the comma before the "and," but it is still correct to use the comma before the last item.

I just want to commend you on this article me being a very huge fan of amerie form the start is exactly how i felt...and i was sitting here wondering why her CD is not dong so well on the charts and this article and other's above have said they just don't GET amerie they can't put her in a catagory...being that she does not have a bad bone in her body what can you say about her? which is some major bullshit for Vibe giving her a cover and printing this shit...if this was my first time finding out who Amerie was i would still be lost... a big let down from Vibe on this one.

LOL. Rod you should really edit this review and send it in to Vibe. To be honest the past few cover stories have been some serious bull.
Oh yeah, and i thought you could use a comma before "and"(lol), or is that no longer acceptable? Amerie's first album sold what it did based on word of mouth more than here first two singles. She has a fan base that they feel they dont know how to market to. Funny thing about it is that Amerie doesnt have to do much. Her fans like who she is and what she represents. She's sexy without having to try so damn hard and you know she's intellegent. Who would have thought to hook up with a DC producer and dropping a go-go joint to the mainstream. LOVE IT!

You should take a few lessons in Grammar before you try to correct someone elses work. Commas are always placed before the conjunction when there are three or more items in a series. You are pretty stupid. Maybe you should get an English degree before you go around correcting professional journalists' material.

There's no need to be RUDE, "Guest" -- it would be nice if you had the balls to post your real name.

For your information, there are indeed editors who strongly prefer the exclusion of the "final" comma as is Rod's preference and others who demand it, as you seem to. It really depends on the editor, so take it down a notch and stop calling people names.

This is a good review. I actually thought that the article was rather deplorable. Serena Kim painted Amerie as a naive fool, which I didn't appreciate. I wanted to read more about her music, her experiences as a black Korean, and the places she's lived, and also her vision for her career. I didn't like the way Kim harped on the lack of drama in Amerie's life, while peppering the article with possible hints of, well, future drama: the tug of war between her "lisping" manager/boyfriend and her Svengali producer and the fact that Amerie sounds like she's borderline OCD with the determination to have her cereal boxes facing the same direction, a la Monk or Howard Hughes. I'm just waiting for the day when Amerie does a complete 180, dumps that manager/boyfriend of hers, finds a thuggish rapper who will ghettoize her and keep her in the tabloids. Then everyone will be saying, "What's wrong with Amerie? What happened to her?" Isn't that what the people want?

This article was stupid. It wasn't very accurate, either. I wish people would stop painting Amerie as Snow White 'cuz it just doesn't ring true. What Amerie is is a great actress and I pray that she will appear in more films. That "First Daughter" flick sucked, but she was pretty good in it. But the article was filled with inaccuracies. Amerie has no vices? Please. How about lying? She lied throughout the article: she lied about not getting a nose job, not sleeping with Rich Harrison (c'mon, everyone knows they slept together)and not knowing what "shrooms" are (the funniest lie of them all). Will the "real" Amerie please stand up?

Almost rarely do we comment on the board, especially to critics. Everyone should be able to have an opinion, especially counter to mine.

For the record, as Rashid said, the final comma after the "and" is an editorial decision. It's frowned upon by AP Style and in major newspapers. But that was the least of Serena Kim and Vibe's concerns. The essay was patronizing and hostile; it also belittled her accomplishments. That's the real story. Let's talk about that.

Regarding my background, there is no English degree. But there is a philosophy degree from the U of Chicago and some grad studies. For the past ten years, have written and produced at organizations such as ABC News, NBC News, local stations, a talk show, the LA Times and are a member of WGA-East.

First of all no one knows anything about Amerie for sure. So for one of the posters to make that comment about Amerie sleeping with Rich harrison is way off. It was always business and a family vibe trust me I know. This article is a sad attempt to create a false image of Amerie. I also think you should mail it to VIBE.

And Tracy make sure to get your facts straight when you post. Amerie has never had a nose job and has never slept with Rich Harrison. I suppose I'd be lying as well when I say I had no clue what "shrooms" were either until that artice. Why should I? If I don't indulge in that type of thing, why would I need or want to know? So ASSuming that you know what you're talking about...well, I'm sure you can get where I'm going with that...

Rod, that was really good, especially when you brought up the part about the drinking. THANK YOU! I just understand why its so neccessary to sit around talking about this like its positive. Its not cute to sit around talking 'i'm drunk' or 'hey remember that time we were drunk and....". God it so good to hear someone else say that

You people outside the ropes KILL me! How do you know what Amerie has and hasn't done in her personal life? The nose job is apparent, however who she sleeps with or doesn't sleep with....well is it really relevant? Second, were you there when she allegedly f*cked Rick Harrison? LOSERS!

I can not speak about Amerie's personal life but I can tell you that she has definately had a nose job. You can clearly tell from prior pictures that her nose has been worked on . She had a flat nose before now it is pointed and lifted up. Hello People!!!

You guys are all crazy , commas , nose jobs and scandalous affairs! This is Amerie we're talking about , anyways I agree this is good stuff. I for one still don't know what shrooms are. This definitely should be made known only I don't understand why it's so important when it's Amerie , if it was anyone else no one would have cared. Trust me people, she's getting paid regardless ^_^